Greater New Orleans

Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, shown after the House Republican Conference elected him to be the new House majority whip, is drawing campaign cash from donors who hadn't paid him any attention before. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Steve Scalise's election June 19 as House Republican Whip, the 3rd ranking leadership position, helped him raise over $150,000 in just 11 days, including money from donors who haven' given to his campaign previously.

On June 30th alone, political action committees representing the National Chicken Council, McGraw Hill Financial, Career Education Corporation, MasterCard, and the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists all gave Scalise's campaign $1,000 each. Five days earlier, Boston Scientific gave his campaign $2,000.

It seems a safe bet that at least some of those first-time donors wanted to be on the Scalise bandwagon now that he's part of the Republican leadership team.

Scalise, a Jefferson Republican, now has nearly $859,000 for his re-election campaign, with so far only a libertarian candidate, Jeffry Sanford, signed up to run against him in the 1st Congressional District. Sanford lists no campaign cash in his latest 2014 campaign finance report.

Among the expenditures his campaign financed, according to the campagn report, was $8,779 to Acadianna Restaurant in Washington, where he held a dinner for those House members supporting him in what was a three-way race for Majority Whip. Scalise won on the first ballot.

Scalise also hosted a $12,967 dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Washington D.C.

The Scalise campaign also paid $1,105 to Marucchi Elite of Baton Rouge and nearly $6,000 to Phoenix Bats of Ohio for miniature bats he handed out to boost his own campaign.

In the 10 days between House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's surprise loss in the Virginia GOP primary, which created the leadership openings to replace Cantor and for the majority whip post held by Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who ran and won the majority leader post, Scalise also gave $28,000 to 14 Republican House candidates -- no doubt generating some good will for the Louisianan.

You can expect that giving from the Scalise campaign fund to continue through the fall congressional elections. After the fall House elections, Scalise and the other GOP leaders will have to run for leadership slots again.

Not everyone was motivated by his rise to leadership.

"The check was in the mail even before that (his leadership post) was a possibility," said Houston attorney Michael Rubenstein, who is credited with a $1,000 donation on June 30.

He said he has known Scalise for 20 years -- they coached youth basketball in the New Orleans together -- and that a friend had asked him to attend a fund-raising breakfast for the congressman in Houston.

"I agreed to attend, though he (Scalise) ended up unable to come because of the leadership changes," Rubenstein said.